What's on at Europe's Museums
October 25, 2004
Remembering and Mythologizing
German Historical Museum, Berlin
Over the last 60 years, the myth of World War II resistance evolved across Europe, with the existence of collaborators and fellow-travellers firmly repressed. It took Europe a long time to face up to its guilt and responsibility, and this new exhibition in the German Historical Museum charts how the process of remembering has changed. The show in Berlin looks at the dialectic of repression and mythologizing, explores how memories are in a constant process of realigning themselves, and documents how historical constructions vis-à-vis the Second World War diverged in East and West Germany.
Myths of the Nations runs through Feb. 27, 2005 and is open daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Confronting Death and its Aftermath
Hygiene Museum, Dresden
A new exhibition at the Dresden Hygiene Museum presents 24 black and white photographs of people just about to die, and just after the moment of their death. The portrait photographer Walter Schels felt that death has become more and more of a taboo in modern society, and immortalized 30 people in hospital, awaiting death. Beate Lakotta also experienced these people's last few weeks. Her biographies of people facing imminent death accompany this very haunting exhibition.
Life Again (Noch Mal Leben) runs through Nov.14 and is open daily, except Mondays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Monet's Eden
Kunsthaus Zurich
Zurich is set to host a show of seventy paintings by Claude Monet, ranging from early Impressionist pieces painted in the 1870s to the monumental "Grandes Decorations". Monet (1840–1926) often drew on the inspiration he found in nature. He loved gardens, and much of his work is based on the various gardens he spent time in. In the 1860s it was the garden of his house in Sevres; in the 1870s there were the gardens of two houses in Argenteuil, followed by an estate in Vetheuil. Monet’s best known garden was his extensive parkland in Giverny. For over three decades, this renowned garden provided ideas and motifs for hundreds of works and series, including his famous Water-Lilies. Since 1900, admirers, collectors and art dealers have made the pilgrimage to Giverny, and many count this open-air studio as a work of art in its own right. This exhibition also takes a look at the conditions of production for the Impressionists, the mutual relationship between an artist and his public, and the international art market at that time.
Monet's Garden runs from Oct. 29 to Feb. 27, 2005 and is open Tuesdays through Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Fridays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibition is closed on Mondays.
Art from the Enlarged EU
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
This new exhibition in the Netherlands showcases work by six artists and a collective who address differing experiences of time and a current perspective on history. From various perspectives -- personal, political and social -- Little Warsaw (Balint Havas, Andras Galik), Jan Mancuska, Deimantas Narkevicius, Paulina Olowska, Roman Ondak, Tadej Pogacar and Wilhelm Sasnal examine themes such as memory and reconstruction, acceleration and retardation, and documentary and fiction. The exhibition takes place against the background of the dynamic developments in central and eastern Europe over the past 15 years. The artists are less concerned with the nostalgic desire for a bygone era, but rather with exposing those moments from the recent past which are necessary for a better understanding of our present juncture in history.
Who if not we...? Time and Again runs from Oct. 23. to Jan. 30, 2005 and is open Fridays through Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Exploring Space
MUMOK, Vienna
Vienna's museum of modern art is currently home to an exhibition that takes a close look at space and its dimensions. The projects showcased in PARA SITES illustrate that space is not a state. It is a commodity, a matter of negotiation and dispute -- marked, occupied and divided up. Discussions on globalization, urbanism and post-colonialism have contributed toward developing a concept of space that extends far beyond physical conditions. Today, spatial structures are deemed expressions of economic, political and cultural conditions, bearers and multipliers of social codes and instruction manuals. A number of works are being developed on site in the course of the exhibition, as PARA SITES launches an attempt to think of space as a permanently actionable and negotiable variable.
PARA SITES runs through Nov. 7 and is open Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.